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I think JK is still rotating the roster which I like with 3 games this week. Just a little confused with Goodson/Besler. If you bring Gonzo I thought he’d pair with Besler in the two remaining games. Will he start in the final?

I’m worried with Stu playing on this “pitch” but I’m glad he is playing. Would like to see Shea and Corona start but I think they are good sparks off the bench, JK is rotating Corona, and would rather see Shea vs Mexico who he has always terrorized.

Thought EJ and Beckerman were outstanding in the first half. With the complete domination in the first half other than a few lulls, really wish the US would have “killed the game” and got a 3rd. Honduras maybe a little fortunate with the one offside call and the one possible penalty.

I put Diskerud over Holden in the depth chart, currently. Boy though does Holden look good for a player without a season under his belt. I think we’re going to skyrocket with Holden @ Bolton and Altidore @ Sunderland in terms of International respect. Oh and I forgot about Shea learning how to play with smaller touches at Stoke. That’s 3 guys that should all jump leaps and bounds up to LD’s level of play @ WC10.
Speaking of Diskerud… any chance he moves to a more difficult league?

To add to this comment… of Onyewu, Goodson, Gonzalez. Who do you take in 9-10 months? Besler has the Demerit position locked in (whose his backup, Orozco?Cameron?) with a bit more skill. #BestUSDefender. Any other big CB optikns I’m overlooking?

Mix needs to go to a more difficult league. I wish so badly he would have been with Porter in Portland this year. He needs to go somewhere though. He was bullied in the 2nd half. I still think he has alot of promise.

Mix going to Portland is not really going to make much of a difference to improve his game. MLS is improving, but I don’t think it is possible to say that MLS is unequivocally going to help Mix’s career due to its advanced technical, positional, or physical qualities. (I think it is close to being true–just not yet easily a fact about the league’s quality.)

Well as much as I love the city of Chicago and want to see this final I just can’t justify the airfare. It is almost cheaper for me to fly from San Jose, CA to Costa Rica to Columbus and back then to just do a quick weekend in Chicago. Oh well. I really wanted to exorcise the memories of 2011.

I can not believe EJ got the sole card on the night. Honduras was making nasty fouls all over the field. The worst part was that the Holden elbow was right in front of the line judges, and that two footed tackle on Brek and the push and kick on Demarcus was 3 feet in front of referee and he called nothing. I think this Costa Rican ref is still upset with the snow game result.

I know I realized at the end that was the only card and laughed ironically.. If JK misses the final due to suspension then that is beyond absolute horseshit officiating/administration. CONCACAF is a complete an utter joke. No wonder we are the laughingstock of the soccer world.

I was at the Gold Cup final in 2011 at the Rose Bowl where alot of shady stuff was going on- no banners allowed like tonight, but no basic weapon check or pat down. The president of the Rose Bowl and Sunil Gulati made personal phone calls and emails to me and others in apology- but why can’t they stand up to CONCACAF? They are part of it.

Anyway, and of course there is the constant horrible officiating. Mexico getting a PK when nobody comes close to touching the diver. With all these match fixing accusations I want a thorough review of these refs. They should be sent with Coulibaly to Kenya to ref the next Police Machine 78-0 fixed game.

Coulibaly was that Somalian ref that screw us against Slovenia in the WC wasn’t he? I agree though something was up. I even thought (naively) that the card on EJ was about to pulled on the other guy for kicking it at him.

I’m still going to Chicago, but I’m gonna be nervous if Jurgen isn’t on the bench, because he was protecting his injury prone players from malicious challenges.

On the whole, Honduras played as dirty as any team I have watched in recent memory. The cheap shots to STUSA’s and Rimando’s chin’s should have been easy yellows. Also they were targeting Torres all night long. He may have complained a bit too much, but I thought most of his complaining was well deserved. The elbows, late tackles, stomping on feet and don’t forget diving was straight nasty street ball. They should be ashamed of themselves.

As for the officiating. Outright horrible. Seen better at my daughter’s club soccer tournament last weekend in San Diego. Either they had blinder’s on or decided to allow Honduras as much latitude as they wanted.

I must say that I have grown to appreciate Beckerman’s workman like shifts as D-mid. He doesn’t bring much to the offensive side still in my opinion, but he knows how to stall the other team’s attack.

I absolutely loved D Beasley’s play and his veteran smarts. He may not have the wheel’s but the man know’s all and see’s all when it comes to defending.

I thought Bedoya has grown tremendously during the tournament and now see why so many on here have been adamant about his quality. Though I couldn’t tell if it was him or Goodson that lost their mark on the Honduras goal.

Besler bossed the central defense and seemed to cover for some of Goodson’s shaky play.

Overall I was pleased with the team’s play and really, really, enjoyed our team getting the first goal and doing it with outstanding offensive play. The passes and touches leading up to that first goal were first quality.

Also, what struck me the most was that no time during the match did I think the team took the gas off the pedal to bunker and hold on to the score, nor did I ever get that old feeling that a two goal lead wasn’t enough and that the US would at some point break down defensively and let the other team back in the game. A la’ Bradley’s teams or early Klinsmann’s tenure. It would get around the 75th minute and I would start to worry about holding our defensive shape or everyone start ball watching.

Lastly, to me Shea’s play was dreadful and he seemed to unglue the whole defensive shape of the team by himself once he got in.

Was impressed with EJ’s play including his willingness to track back clear across the half line to put defensive pressure when Honduras was on the attack.

It is with great hope that the team continues to develop, that we get our starting 11 sorted out with true quality reserve’s and more than anything else have everyone healthy and injury free next summer.

On Beasley, agree with the headline summary that his play and his veteran smarts were on display for all to see.

The one asterisk is that he gave up the soft foul in a dangerous spot that resulted in their free kick and only goal. Honduras was looking for that call all night. In fact, that was a carbon copy of the play in the 2002 World Cup where Eddie Lewis fouled Germany, set piece, goal in our 1-0 quarterfinal loss. (And Beasley was there!)

Beasley still has the quickness of mind and quickness of feet to play outstanding outside D — and to recover when a player gets behind him. The foul was not necessary for him to make a successful defensive play.

That said, the headline assessment on Beasley — that he had a stellar game — is exactly right.

Agreed. I distinctly remember Bruce Arena saying that Beasley was one of the best defenders in the U.S. pool, even from his advanced position outside of the back four. I don’t recall him playing fullback at any point in the past, so maybe I’m mistaken, but I have to wonder how much different our LB position would have looked had he been polished there much earlier in his career.

I agree with you on everything but Shea. Shea can’t help that he got subbed in the same time LD got subbed out. The attack broke down because there was no Landon not because of the addition of Brek. I can only remember one bad pass he made, but I can definitely remember him making a great cross that we sat on instead of scoring.

To add to the Besler covering for Goodson, I think that’s exactly what we want considering we don’t have two world class backs. I think the following year will see Besler become a transfer commodity. I don’t know much about MLS contracts but, somebody should be able to ply him away for Euro duty, no?

Great decisions by JK to start EJ and Bedoya as well as Goodson, who made great deep passes. Another bunker down team but we had EJ and Bedoya that made Honduras have to extend more than they wanted. Donovan, EJ and Bedoya were the players of the game. Torres, Holden, Beckerman did their jobs and the back line was better. From my view, it seemed that Bedoya was the player defending the goal scorer.

Panama will most likely bunker down too and last time we played them… we got EJ (RM) behind the defense for a goal so this makes me wonder if we may see the same group out there again on Sunday, which would mean that Corona does not start. Diskerud for Holden to me is a must. Holden is just not there yet. It took Donovan 2 months in MLS to get back to his usual self… Holden has had about 1.5 months and Shea less than a month to get to where they are now. Give them time.

I know its not going to happen but man does Stu need to learn how and when to go in hard to challenges. I appreciate that he throws his body around but that’s how the Evans injury happened really, on a reckless dive in. I still think Jonny Evans is pond scum but that was what happened. At least 3-4 times last night he got banged around for no good reason other than just overzealously throwing his body in to lost cause challenges. It really points back to his injury history when you see him in that way.

I love the class that you can see he has even under all of the rust. Given 8-12 months of conditioning and game readiness I’m excited to see what he and Mike can bring.Just hoping he can stay healthy.

Have liked Torres in this tourney but have to keep reminding myself that the speed and skill level is a step below the A team’s. He has been able to make space for himself with ease and his inventiveness and creativity have been instrumental in how this team has played. I’m just not sure that he can pull it off at the A level based on what we’ve seen of him in the past. And there were a couple of horrible turnovers in the middle third from him overdoing it with the ball. Hope he can step up as he is only one of 2 or 3 players that bring that level of ball skill on the squad.

Still not sold on Diskerud. Stuff to like but then he goes through a stretch where he hurts you with ball possession and defending.

To state it clearly, I like Kyle Beckerman (please enough with the “hater” label when someone has a critical statement about a player you like). But watching his play he does slow things down with the ball and he gets easily beaten by players on the move. Excellent on ball defender but if you get a step on him he just cannot recover. Good fit for this squad though.

Shea just can’t seem to string together good performances. He looked lost and slow of thought and movement out there. Not sure if he has a knock that is slowing him down but he just doesn’t look comfortable at all.

On Shea that was a better assessment than my own. He did look lost out there last night. Defensively he kept tracking inside and Beasley had to cover both inside and outside for him. There was a sequence at the top of the 18 when he just stood there in the middle of four players as the ball was passed around him, never fully committing to any pressure on one player. As for his offensive chops, geez that through ball pass he attempted straight to the keeper with no US player within 15 yds was horrible. Also he needs to learn something that has been drilled into me as a player and coach for 40 years. KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. I wish he would stop trying so many dribbling tricks as he goes down the sideline.

I thought Shea played OK. Definately out of sync with the team and very indecisive at times. That said, he played 2 or 3 balls into the zone that were really close to being good. Given the love Holden gets while still completely missing open players while switching the field I think Shea should get some too. I mean he hasn’t played regularly in like a year now. If he can get even 50% of minutes at Stoke then I think he makes the WC roster.

Reading a few replies on here, maybe I am being too harsh on Shea’s performance last night as a second half sub as well as Goodson’s performance. For me I keep expecting Goodson to not play the offside trap correctly and also sky a clearance in front of the 18 as he is want to do once or twice a game. As for Shea, maybe it’s his body language or some of his seemingly lackadaisical effort in defending that seems to repeat itself every other game. Overall I was very pleased with last night’s win and effort by the WHOLE team which hasn’t been the case over the last 3 years.

John Anthony Brooks called up for the Bosnia game!! I know that’s not a cap tie but it will make me ecstatic. I was hoping he’d be in for the Gold Cup. Maybe just maybe we can forget about Subotic finally.